Europeans

formerrunner25

Who's going to shine? Britton for a medal, It's a shame Uslu is still allowed compete after her drugs ban. Sweeney for top 10.Mulhare top 8? can't understand why 6 have not been sent in each category. especially the juniors, They need all the experience they can get at this level. It will be interesting to see how Jake Byrne performs,its his 1st real international test since world youths in 2009, although he has performed well for Iona apart from NCAA's. Treacy in the under 23s should finish in the top 15, possibly better

runjb

I think Fionnuala Britton will win a medal, the colour is debatable. I think if the race is run hard, she has the strength this year to win it going into the final lap. Her coach Max Jones has identified an Italian runner, Nadia Ejjafini, as a major threat, and throw in the likes of Uslu, Herzog, Felix, Duarte (France) makes it a challenging feat. But I have a sneaking suspicion Fionnuala will rock it tomorrow and take GOLD:D

Elsewhere, I'd expect Sara Louise Tracey to put in a strong performance and take a top 10 spot at least. A pity an U23 women's team wasn't sent, with only 6 teams entered in the category, it might have been Ireland's best chance of a good team placing. Time will tell I guess.

Joe Sweeney will aim for a top 10 finish, his coach Jerry Kiernan saying he should be at least 20 seconds up on last year, which should move him up a good few places. Likewise Michael Mulhare to challenge for a top 10 finish in U23 race, although it has to be said that the main danger men from last year are also eligible to run in the same age this year.

Hopefully Siofra Clerigh Buttner will put in a good race in what will be her first shot at junior xc in Europe. She will undoubtedly have more years ahead of her at this age.

Unfortunetly our teams will be up against it, all teams will find it hard to break into top 6. A team medal seems out of the question.

Can't wait for the action to kick off, RTE will cover senior races live from 12.45pm. European Athletics Website also showing all races live with English commentary.

BTH

formerrunner25 wrote: »

Britton for a medal

Which Britton?!

runjb

Junior Women's Race Run, good battle up front, the Serb, Terzic who incidently beat Ciara Mageean in the European Jun T&F 1500m, really died over the last 1km, to allow the British athlete, Gorecka, through to win.

GORECKA, Emelia GBR 13:13
DOAGA, Ioana ROU 13:14
TERZIC, Amela SRB 13.22


From an Irish perspective:
Siofra Cleirigh Buttner: 49th
Claire McCarthy: 51st
Kate Veale: 57th
Mary Mulhare: 71st
Mary-Ann O'Sullivan: 80th
Team: 12th

Compared to last year (2010):
Ciara Mageean: 7th
Laura Behan: 40th
Amy O'Donoghue: 66th
Fiona McKenna: 71st
Emma Mitchell: 72nd
Team: 10th

Slight disprovement but they're a young team so hopefully will improve over the next 2 years.

runjb

Junior men's race saw a large field take part, good battle between the Russians and British.

SAFIULIN, Ilgizar RUS 17:49
GOODMAN, Richard GBR 17:51
NIKITIN, Vladimir RUS 17.51

Jake Byrne from Ireland put in an strong performance in 23rd place, a good result!

Irish performances:
Jake Byrne: 23rd
Sean Tobin: 45th
Ruairi Finnegan: 65th
Kevin Dooney: 81st
Liam Brady: 96th
Team: 12th

Last year's Irish results:
Shane Quinn: 12th
John Travers: 25th
Paul Robinson: 41st
Emmet Jennings: 42nd
Kevin Dooney: 67th
Darren McBrearty: 74th
Team: 5th

Getonwithit

Junior girls were in trouble after 500, out too fast sadly..
Junior boys had some strong runs. Throw back in Quin (hypotheitically) takes 70 plus off team score gets that team up to 6th/7th?
Tobin and Finnegan runs promising along with a better Dooney and oe more next year, Tobin and Finnegan eligible for 2 years. Opportunity on..
Looking at womens 23 I cant believe we dont have a team along with 2 out there that could have a go for medals.. GB mopping it huge gaps in team scores

formerrunner25

Poor runs in the under 23 events, Mulhare 33rd? and Treacy 18th? very poor from Mulhare, was he injured? top 20 the previous 2 years

Getonwithit

Who is the female commentator on RTE? Hasnt a clue!

pconn062

Getonwithit wrote: »

Who is the female commentator on RTE? Hasnt a clue!

I'm watching on BBC, the coverage of athletics is always better, RTE are likely to go an and ad break in the middle of the race!

Gringo78

Wow, tremendous stuff from Britton...a long time since we've seen an Irish athlete so dominant

chipsdave

looks like a winner !

shazkea

Fantastic running by Britton, well done to her.

Dan man

Well done Fionnuala, she showed real class there. Happy days.

RoyMcC

Fantastic run - just switched on in time to catch that!!

BeepBeep67

Perfectly controlled race - well done Fionnula

drquirky

Great run by Britton- well done...

AJCOT

Remarkably controlled performance, absolute class from Fionnuala Britton.:)

formerrunner25

Great run. Commentary was a disaster, watched it on BBC

Kristopherus

Fantastic run by Fionnuala Britton. Great to see a good guy win after all her frustrations. Well done, girl.

Pisco Sour

:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D

Saw none of it out here. Can somebody PLEASE upload this onto youtube if possible, and post the link up here, with national anthem included. I dont ask for much!

Getonwithit

Yeeeeeeeeooooowwwwwww

Gringo78

RoyMcC wrote: »

Fantastic run - just switched on in time to catch that!!

You'd have been forgiven for not knowing it was on....the Sunday independent sports supplement, all 14 pages of it, couldn't find any space to mention it, even though there was room for Scottish division 3 soccer results.

captain P

I missed it too. Well done Fionnuala!

G-Money

Great result.

There was something about the National Anthem on at the end too which really was hugely uplifting.

RoyMcC

Ledwith showing up well in the early stages.

ger664

Fantastic run by Britton.

RoyMcC

RoyMcC wrote: »

Ledwith showing up well in the early stages.

...but has fallen away rapidly

SWL

Joe Sweeney is going well - best placed of the Iirsh

G-Money

Joe Sweeney in 2nd!

ger664

5th Place for sweeney great running as well

SWL

G-Money wrote: »

Joe Sweeney in 2nd!

No 5th

RoyMcC

5th for Sweeney - great run from the big man!

jeffontour

Great stuff from both Britton & Sweeney, really gutsy stuff.

Dan man

That was a fantastic performance from big Joe Sweeney.....an inspiring weekend for Irish athletics.

formerrunner25

Fantastic from Sweeney, didn't expect top 5, excellent

formerrunner25

2 seconds off the bronze, don't think too many would have predicted that

Dan man

Hopefully the preformances of Fionnuala and Joe will get the coverage it deserves in the media. Good day for Irish sport.

myflipflops

Two unbelievable performances fulfilling the promise that both athletes have shown this year.

Britton's win was as dominant a performance as you will see. She dictated that race from start to finish and won as she wanted. It was a superb run. she can now focus on making the Olympic steeplechase final and then moving up to the marathon where she is a sub 2.25 athlete in waiting.

Joe Sweeneys run was brilliant. I believe he was the 2nd European born athlete home today. He was only seconds off a medal.

Let's hope that despite the large reduction in funding for the Irish Sports Council, both athletes receive the support they need to kick on.

G-Money

On RTE Player now

http://www.rte.ie/player/#!v=1126261

formerrunner25

Overall what are peoples views on the Irish performances? Personally I think we performed well. Junior women without Mageean were always going to struggle. junior men, good solid performance, Jake Byrne was impressive, probably could have finished further up if it wasn't for the long American collegiate season. The rest of the team have another year or two. With Quinn and Mageean running we could have had two more individual medals. Under 23's were disappointing, Treacy was Ok, would have expected better than 18th, Mulhare was extremely poor. Senior men, Sweeneys performance was inspirational, absolutely fantastic, really wasn't expecting that. just one second behind Chaldi last years under 23 champ. Fionnuala, great performance, she will get better, hopefully a top 10 finish in world cross, olympic finalist in the steeple and then she can look forward to retaining her title this time next year all going well

Gringo78

formerrunner25 wrote: »

Poor runs in the under 23 events, Mulhare 33rd? and Treacy 18th? very poor from Mulhare, was he injured? top 20 the previous 2 years

Read in a tabloid today mulhare got spiked and lost a runner in the first km

myflipflops

May as well post it here:

Chris Jones quoted in the IT today saying FB will be moving up to 5k/10k this summer and then the marathon after that. It's a very good move. She looks a born marathon runner.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/sport/2011/1213/1224308999931.html

Pherekydes

I was out all day Sunday and missed the whole meet, but I caught up with the women's race on the RTE viewer and she is just relentless. She never quits. Her greatest strength. Personally, I always think it's the best quality in an endurance athlete.

Brilliant.

A great effort from 'Big Joe', too. I reckon he's due a big breakthrough on the track next summer.

climbhigh

There are many ways to analyse the results of the European cross-country. One simple approach is the time percentage behind the winner. Within 15% of the winner is at the races and all of the Irish runners achieved that.

Junior women
1 Emilia Gorecka 00:13:13 100%
49 Siofra Cleirigh-Buttner 00:14:30 110%
51 Clare McCarthy 00:14:30 110%
57 Kate Veale 00:14:33 110%
71 Mary Mulhare 00:14:50 112%
80 Maryann O’Sullivan 00:15:11 115%

Junior men
1 Iizigar Safiulin 00: 17:49 100%
24 Jake Byrne 00:18:32 104%
46 Sean Tobin 00:18:51 106%
66 Ruairi Finnegan 00:19:04 107%
82 Kevin Dooney 00:19:18 108%
97 Liam Brady 00:19:40 110%

Under 23 women
1 Emma Pallant 00:19:57 100%
18 Sara Treacy 00:20:53 105%
38 Una Britton 00:22:35 113%

Under 23 men
1 Florian Carvalho 00:23:44 100%
33 Michael Mulhare 00:24:24 103%
57 Emmet Jennings 00:25:01 105%
76 Liam Tremble 00:25:33 108%
84 David Fitzmaurice 00:25:57 109%
87 David Flynn 00:26:11 110%

Senior women
1 Fionnuala Britton 00:25:55 100%
43 Claire McCarthy 00:28:23 110%
44 Elish Kelly 00:28:29 110%
45 Kerry Harty 00:28:33 110%
46 Aoife Byrne 00:28:38 110%

Senior men
1 Atelan Bekele 00:29:15 100%
5 Joseph Sweeney 00:29:23 100%
26 Paul Pollock 00:29:57 102%
35 Andrew Ledwith 00:30:17 104%
50 Mark Hanrahan 00:30:56 106%
54 Gary Thornton 00:31:15 107%

myflipflops

climbhigh wrote: »

There are many ways to analyse the results of the European cross-country. One simple approach is the time percentage behind the winner. Within 15% of the winner is at the races and all of the Irish runners achieved that.

I'd be halving that percentage.

The seniors womens team was especially poor. The equivalent of 2 and a bit laps of a track behind Fionnuala Britton in first.

Actually, looking at this, Paul Pollocks run has gotten very little credit. 45 seconds behind a buy like Bekele over 10k is very good.